# data[].attributes.body
this story talks about how Charles never did a proper investigation on her sons death. this tells all about what she went though in jail and how she handled everything.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The Ontario Court of Appeal has quashed the murder conviction of a Toronto mother who was imprisoned for life on the basis of flawed testimony from pathologist Charles Smith.

"We recognize this has been a terrible ordeal for you and it's tragic it has taken so long to uncover the flawed pathology that led to your conviction in 1995,"Justice Marc Rosenberg told Tammy Marquardt Thursday morning.

"We agree ... there was a miscarriage of justice," Rosenberg said on behalf of a three-judge panel.

Marquardt emerged from the second floor courtroom into a gathering of supporters.

She hugged her 5-month-old daughter, her niece and her lawyer, James Lockyer.

"Finally, the nightmare is coming to an end and I'm waking up," Marquardt told reporters later outside Osgoode Hall.

The 38-year-old Scarborough native spent nearly 14 years in prison after being convicted of murdering her 2-year-old son, Kenneth Wynne.

Marquardt said the experience of having her child die and then having her two younger sons adopted out through Children's Aid because of her criminal charges was like "having your heart ripped out and having someone squeeze it in front of your face."

"I have been feeling anger for a long time, but anger isn't going to do anything for me," she said.

While other victims of Smith's mistakes have since been acquitted, Marquardt's "dilemma" is that fresh evidence in her case only allows a court to go as far as ordering a new trial, Lockyer told the court.

The evidence is still ambiguous about how the child died but strongly suggests he died as a result of an epileptic seizure, Lockyer said.

In his short life, Kenneth had suffered from asthma and pneumonia and had been treated for seizures eight times.

Smith opined the cause of death was asphyxia, likely the result of smothering or suffocation.

That remains a possibility, given an absence of hard evidence about why Kenneth died, the appeal court was told on Thursday.

At the same time, two neurologists from the Hospital for Sick Children who independently examined the boy's medical records found his demise was consistent with a sudden unexplained death from epileptic seizure.

While three-judge panel set aside Marquardt's conviction, the Crown has not indicated whether it intends to proceed with a new trial.

The court, meanwhile, extended Marquardt's bail.

A few rows behind Marquardt in the courtroom on Thursday was her new baby, Tiffany, who was seated on her grandmother's knee.

Marquardt was also accompanied by her boyfriend, Rick, and two men at the centre of other contentious murder cases.

One was William Mullins-Johnson , who spent 12 years in prison after being wrongly convicted of murdering his niece on the basis of Smith's errors.

The other was Gary Comeau, who is battling to overturn his conviction in connection with a Port Hope hotel shooting more than 30 years ago.

Thursday's decision came after forensic experts reviewed the conclusions of the former pediatric pathology superstar and found them illogical and "completely" unscientific.

Smith's evidence dovetailed with the Crown's theory at the time, that Marquardt had suffocated Kenneth in a moment of anger and frustration.

But he was wrong in supporting the Crown's theory and his testimony denied the jury the option of concluding the child had instead died as a result of a seizure, Crown counsel Gillian Roberts told the court.

Marquardt said she found him twisted up in bed sheets and obviously distressed. He was taken to hospital, but died three days later, after being taken off life support.

Nearly two years ago, Marquardt was released on bail. She had been incarcerated in the Grand Valley women's prison in Kitchener.

Kenneth died 17 years ago, in October, 1993.

Her other sons, who she named Keith, now 16, and Eric, 14, live somewhere in Canada, but never had further contact with their mother.

Marquardt said she wants to get her name placed on a registry so they can find her one day if they want to.

"If they want to be in my life, my arms are open," she said.

Last week, Smith was stripped of his medical license by Ontario's College of Physicians and Surgeons. He now lives in British Columbia.

Sign In

Register

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
15 years later, court overturns child murder conviction

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Ontario Court of Appeal has quashed the murder conviction of a Toronto mother who was imprisoned for life on the basis of flawed testimony from pathologist Charles Smith. "We recognize this has been a terrible ordeal for you and it's tragic it has taken so long to uncover the flawed pathology that led to your conviction in 1995,"Justice Marc Rosenberg told Tammy Marquardt Thursday morning.

# data[].attributes.body
Tammy received $250,000 fro 13 years of jail time, she talks about how no amount of money will be able to bring back the parts of life that she missed out on.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
TORONTO -Tammy Wynne Marquardt was wrongfully convicted of the death of her two-year-old son by the testimony of disgraced pathologist Dr. Charles Smith and spent 13 years in jail and lost her other two children when the province adopted them out.

For all of that, the Ontario government says she is entitled to up to $250,000 in compensation.

One would think the province would have added one more zero to the $250,000 in compensation, said Wynne Marquardt, who's working on being exonerated and is one of the dozens of people whose lives were destroyed by Smith.

"Life isn't easy. I'm scrapping pennies together to make ends meet. Their compensation isn't a lot for what I have gone through. Nothing will change what they have done," she said.

"This is a recognition payment ... $250,000 is a lot of money," Ontario Attorney General Chris Bently said Tuesday.

"The flawed work of Dr. Charles Smith has deeply affected the lives of many people in Ontario. Today we are moving forward with payments to recognize the impact of that experience," he said.

Two years ago, the McGuinty government promised to do everything they could to help the victims.

But Wynne Marquardt says the Crown is only offering to stay the conviction and keeps pushing back court dates.

That has Wynne Marquardt worried about the statute of limitations for her civil lawsuit, so she will be applying for the compensation.

While she may be granted up to $250,000 if deemed eligible, a child who was removed from their home or adopted out may receive $25,000 if they can be found and a family member of one of the victims may apply for up to $12,500, but only if they do so in the next 90 days.

Roy Simmons spent seven years in jail after being wrongfully convicted in the death of his grandchild.

"(The compensation) doesn't take away from the grief and loss and the amount is an insult," Simmons said.

"They would offer my mother $12,500. She visited every chance she could and she suffered just as much as me. I saw the tears in her eyes," Simmons said.

He is also having trouble getting the courts to clear his name.

The Crown told him he needs to get a copy of the independent autopsy that says Smith's finding were illogical but was told by the coroner's office they couldn't find the report.

Weeks later the coroner's office told him the Attorney General's office, which oversees Crown attorneys, had come and taken the report.

Bently said he won't comment on individual cases.

"I can't do this any more," Simmons said. "I can't live my life like this."

NDP justice critic Pete Kormos described the compensation as paultry and is an embarrassment.

"This is just another harm being done to these victims of the state. They served hard time and this is just another assault on these people," Kormos said.

Ted Chudleigh, the Conservative justice critic, questions if the victims will ever see the justice they deserve.

"Families were torn apart and individuals' lives were destroyed as a result of Dr. Charles Smith's work," he said. "I'm glad victims have finally received an answer but the Attorney General's $250,000 'recognition payment' is not enough to acknowledge the harm they are forced to live with each day."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Compensation offered for wrongfully convicted

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
News, Local, Provincial, Canada, World, Sports, High School Sports, Local Hockey, Hockey, Basketball, Baseball, Football, Soccer, Lacrosse, Curling, Other Sports, Entertainment, Local, Movies, Music, Television, Celebrities, Life, Health, Food, Travel, Money, Opinion, Editorial, Letters, Column, Your Newspaper, Social medias, Events, UR, News, Sports, Life, Entertainment, Money, Opinion, Marketplace, Photos, Videos, Contests, Polls, Weather, Sitemap, Event Submission

# data[].attributes.body
Tammy went to jail for 13 years. she was pregnant well she was in jail and there was other woman trying to kill her for " kill her son". Tammy was eventually put in to maximum security to protect herself from other.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
John Chipman's book Death in the Family delves into the lives of four of the families devastated by a child's death and then victimized by Dr. Charles Smith, Ontario's top pediatric forensic pathologist. Years later Smith would be found guilty of professional misconduct.
Scarborough native Tammy Marquardt spent 13 years in prison for murdering her 2-year-old son, Kenneth Wynne. She lost another son to adoption through Children's Aid, then entered prison pregnant. Her conviction in October 1995 was quashed in 2011 because it relied on flawed testimony from Smith that pointed to asphyxiation. A new trial was ordered, but the Crown withdrew charges.
Tammy and the other new prisoners were first taken to Admissions and Discharge. Everyone was strip-searched, then given their prison kit: two pairs of sweatpants, two sweaters, two T-shirts, five pairs of underwear, five pairs of socks, two bras, four towels, four facecloths, two sheets, one pillow, one pillowcase, a blue blanket and some basic toiletries and personal hygiene products. All of her worldly belongings could now fit inside a pillowcase.

After intake, the new inmates were taken to see the OIC, or the officer-in-charge, and he had some words of advice for Tammy. "If you want that child to live," he said, pointing to her stomach, "you don't tell anyone what you're in here for."

It had never occurred to Tammy that none of the other inmates would know what she was in for. She asked McGinnis what she should say if people asked.

"Tell them you killed your husband," he said.

It was good advice, crucial advice; advice he didn't have to give her. She was never sure whether he told her for her baby's sake, for her own safety or to save himself the trouble of dealing with the aftermath if an inmate tried to beat her to death.

P4W was a multi-security prison, since at the time it was the only women's penal institution in the country. The prison was made up of two ranges, called A and B, a segregation unit and a separate area called the Wing. New inmates - the "fresh fish" - were housed in A range; B range was for the troublemakers, the inmates who liked to start fights and otherwise stir up trouble.

Protective custody was in the segregation unit; it was for the baby killers and "goofs" - the pedophiles. The protective custody-special needs unit housed the mentally unstable. The Wing - split into North and South sections - was for minimum-security inmates, or lifers. Inmates were given slightly more freedom down on the Wing, where the cells looked a bit more like rooms than concrete boxes. The Wing was the carrot; if you behaved yourself, that's where they'd put you.

Charles Smith on his last day of testimony at the Pediatric Forensic Pathology Inquiry, known as the Goudge Indquiry, in 2008. It followed a review that found mistakes in 20 child-death investigations. (Aaron Lynett)

Tammy started out double-bunked on A range. A and B ranges were long, two-tier corridors that ran parallel to each other. Though the walls were concrete, sound travelled through them as if they were paper. Each range housed more than 50 cells, tiny boxes that barely measured nine feet by six. Jammed inside each was a metal bunk bed with mattresses that weren't much thicker than a folded-up blanket. There was a tall cabinet for personal belongings, a metal desk, a metal drawer, a sink on one wall. The toilet was mounted on the back wall, behind the bed.

It was such a tight squeeze that the front of the toilet was under the lip of the bed, making it almost impossible to sit on the toilet properly. You had to either sit sideways or straddle the toilet and then carefully slide your feet under the bed frame and your knees up against it in order to sit down. Tammy was barely five feet tall and 85 pounds and even she couldn't sit on it properly.

And there was no hope of privacy. Prisoners were allowed to hang a blanket across the metal bars of their cells, but the door itself always had to be kept clear. Inmates and guards, female and male, could see inside as a prisoner squatted in the back corner.

And then there was her roommate. Tammy would be sharing the tiny cell with another pregnant inmate. When she couldn't hold it any longer, Tammy would have to s--- in the open cell with her roommate within arm's reach.

But that indignity didn't last long. Lifers weren't supposed to be double-bunked. At her first meal that evening, Tammy met the chair of the lifers group, who immediately started petitioning for her to move down to the Wing, where living conditions were more passable. The cells there had locks on the inside. The guards could still open them, but it gave the inmates some privacy from other inmates. Tammy was transferred down to the Wing after a month.

She'd been living on the Wing just a couple of weeks when another lifer called her into her cell. Her name was Agatha, and she was pushing 70, Tammy figured. She was a nice woman who'd taken Tammy under her wing. Agatha reminded her of Tweety Bird's Granny: matronly, but fierce when someone she cared for came under threat.

Agatha asked Tammy if she watched the news. Tammy shook her head. Agatha said she'd seen a story that she thought might be about Tammy, and asked her point-blank what she was really in for.

Tammy started to sob. She hadn't meant to lie, she admitted, but she'd been warned she'd have to if she wanted her baby to live. Agatha only cared what Tammy had been convicted of.

"They said I killed my son."

Death in the Family tells four stories, from child's death through to forensic analysis to the legal system and finally the inquest into Dr. Charles Smith.

Agatha said she would get the guards to move Tammy into protective custody, or PC, a separate unit that was a sort of prison within the prison, meant for inmates who couldn't live in the general population because their crimes made them targets - crimes like killing your child.

As if on cue, inmates began banging on Agatha's cell door, screaming obscenities. "Get that f---ing baby killer out of here!" "She's just having that kid so she can kill another one!" "We're going to f---ing kill her! We're going to torture her!" "Let her out, you bitch! You're harbouring a baby killer!"

The screaming continued for several minutes; it felt like hours to Tammy, cowering in the cell while inmates pounded on the bars and threatened to beat her to death. Prison guards finally arrived to clear the hallway and take Tammy away. They took her first to segregation. She was strip-searched again, and that's when she realized she was covered in blood. The baby was in distress.

The guards rushed her to the health-care unit, which then rushed her to Kingston General Hospital. There, the obstetrician gave her a quick examination and an ultrasound. The baby was fine, she said. No need to worry, just some spot bleeding.

Back at the prison, Tammy was returned to segregation. Her bleeding slowed but didn't stop. After a couple of days, she was transferred to the protective custody unit. This was actually two units: protective custody, and protective custody-special needs. Tammy ended up in the special needs unit at first. The cell was just outside the guards' office, and she was under constant supervision. She wasn't allowed out except to shower. She was then moved to protective custody.

It would be her home for the rest of her time at P4W, locked away from the other inmates for her own protection.

"Basically, you had a price on your head [in protective custody]. You were targeted the second you walked in there," Tammy recalled years later.

She would be living alongside baby killers and pedophiles, the mentally unhinged and "psychos." She'd be living in the same unit as Karla Homolka.

Tammy remembers watching Homolka bounce down the stairs, her hair pulled back in a girlish ponytail. She reminded Tammy of Marsha from The Brady Bunch.

"Hi, I'm Karla," a bubbly Homolka said outside Tammy's cell. "If you need anything, just holler up and I'll get it for you."

Tammy only nodded. She couldn't bring herself to respond.

They didn't become friends. Tammy kept her distance, and the serial killer didn't push it. But some interactions were unavoidable. Karla was the prisoner representative for the protective custody unit. Any complaints Tammy had about life in PC needed to be funnelled through Karla, who would bring them to the inmate committee and eventually the prison administration. So although some conversation was inevitable, Tammy said she did her best to keep it to a minimum.

Despite the close quarters, there weren't that many opportunities to interact anyway. There were no shared meals in a mess hall. In PC, inmates ate their meals alone, locked in their cells. The unit was on almost constant lockdown, not because of disruptions there but because both of the two PC guards needed to be present if the cells were to be left open. But one of the guards was frequently called away to help quell disruptions in other parts of the prison, leaving only one on duty - and leaving everyone locked in their cells.

Teresa and Lauralie were the only other women in protective custody. Tammy wasn't sure what they were in for, but the talk among inmates was that they had killed their children. Lauralie was tight with Karla, at least when Karla was within earshot. Otherwise Lauralie would complain that she couldn't stand her. Teresa was large, aggressive and moody.

They had occasional access to the adjacent protective custody-special needs unit as well, but it wasn't a place you'd want to visit. That's where the mentally unstable prisoners were housed, the ones who likely should have been in a hospital rather than a prison. They wailed and screamed, banged their heads against the metal bars of their cell doors. Several tried to kill themselves. One woman threw her own feces at other inmates if they got too close to her cell.

And that was Tammy's world: two alleged child killers, Karla Homolka and a ward full of the mentally unhinged.

Author John Chipman.

Moving around the prison was a problem. P4W was a violent, dangerous place - especially for convicted child killers. But Tammy needed to get around - she was pregnant. She had regular pre-natal appointments in the health clinic, plus she had prison-mandated sessions with a psychologist. But getting from her cell to her appointments could be dangerous.

As a convicted child killer, Tammy was always escorted by a prison guard, who would take her down to a basement tunnel to move her about the prison. "The tunnel was the danger zone," Tammy explained years later. "There were little hidden corners, little breaks in the walls. I had coffee thrown at me. I had shoes thrown at me. I had bodily fluids thrown at me.

"I had one girl come up behind us and hit me with her coffee cup."

There was a blind corner at the end of the tunnel. The lighting was poor, the shadows were long, and you had no idea who was waiting around the corner. And sometimes Tammy's escort turned away.

"That was the extreme danger zone," she said. "That's where I got jumped more times than I care to remember. The guard would just walk away or turn around." One time, four women were waiting for Tammy. At first she fought back, but she soon realized it was pointless - it was far from a fair fight. So Tammy learned to go down quickly, turtling on the floor, her arms protecting her head, her legs pulled up tightly to protect her abdomen as a torrent of fists and feet pounded her.

"It was only after I was down on the ground that I guess the guard figured, 'That's enough. Don't actually kill her.' Then she would step in."

Eric Anthony Steven Marquardt was born on June 20, 1996, at Kingston General Hospital. Tammy gave birth in shackles and handcuffs. The prison guards refused to take them off because she was a maximum-security prisoner. As well, Tammy was appealing her conviction, which made her a flight risk.

The restraints meant she couldn't get her feet into the stirrups for the birth. She pulled her feet up and in, pushing her knees out to the side, her legs contorted into a diamond shape. The obstetrician draped a blanket over her legs and did the best he could. Labour lasted a day and a half.

After the birth, the guards undid her handcuffs so she could hold her newborn. But they kept the shackles on and chained one arm to the wheelchair. She did her best to breathe in her son, to memorize the lines and creases of his face. Then the social workers bundled Eric up and took him away. Tammy shuffled into the prison transfer wagon and headed back to P4W.
Excerpted from Death in the Family by John Chipman. Copyright © 2017 by John Chipman. Published by Doubleday Canada, a division of Penguin Random House Canada Limited. Reproduced by arrangement with the Publisher. All rights reserved. Correction - February 21, 2017: This article was edited from a previous version that mistakenly said Barry McGinnis was the officer-in-charge (OIC) at the Grand Valley Institution for Women in 1996 when Tammy Marquardt began serving a life sentence for murdering her 2-year-old son. In fact, McGinnis was not working at the prison at that time and was not the guard who pointed at Marquardt's stomach and said, "If you want that child to live, you don't tell anyone what you're in here for."
The Toronto Star and thestar.com, each property of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, One Yonge Street, 4th Floor, Toronto, ON, M5E 1E6. You can unsubscribe at any time. Please contact us or see our privacy policy for more information.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Falsely convicted, in maximum security and pregnant | Toronto Star

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
John Chipman's book Death in the Family delves into the lives of four of the families devastated by a child's death and then victimized by Dr. Charles Smith, Ontario's top pediatric forensic pathologist. Years later Smith would be found guilty of professional misconduct.

# data[].attributes.body
this was Tammy speaking live on how Charles smith took half of her life for not using proper evidence before convicting her. she talks about how she loves her freedom. speaking about how her life is going to have to restart because she lost many family members.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Tammy Marquardt, Another Innocent Victim of Charles Randall Smith aka "Randy Smith".flv

# data[].attributes.body
Tammy was accused of kill her 2 year old son and was in prison for 13 years

# data[].attributes.body
this tells about Tammys story from the beginning of her life and what she went through to get where she is. this talks about the whole process throughout the years with her son and how the court was unfair to Tammy.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Tammy Marquardt- Wrongfully Convicted- Western University

# data[].attributes.body
this talks about how Tammy was wrongfully convicted by how Charles smith was not well traded and did not go into depth about her sons death. the evidence shows that her son likely died due to a epileptic seizure.

# data[].attributes.body
he put Tammy in jail for many years due to wrong evidence and not doing a full in depth case on what happened to Tammys son.

# data[].attributes.body
This is a picture of Tammy holding a picture of her son and trying to gain her innocents

# data[].attributes.body
questions about Tammy Marquardt